Yoga offers guidance as an all-natural way to help you heal. As one of the oldest forms of documented exercise, it’s methods have been proven to reconnect your body and mind. This results in relaxation and the easing of symptoms, whether they be mental or physical, to create a peaceful environment for healing to take place.
Yoga offers stress and pain relief
When we’re experiencing pain, via a physical activity or emotional trauma, it’s understandable that stress comes along for the ride. Scientific studies have found that yoga helps to reduce your blood pressure, lower your heart rate and decrease the production of stress hormones.
A regular yoga practice helps minimise your brain’s acknowledgment of pain as you foster the ability to change your perception of it. Through the combination of breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, yoga teaches you to relax and release tension. You gain the opportunity to be with and move through pain, instead of resisting it and fuelling further stress.
Yoga increases your immune function
On the topic of stress, it’s one of the greatest contributors to colds and other illnesses. When you practice yoga and relaxation, you calm the nervous system, resulting in decreased inflammation and such symptoms. Breathing techniques and postures also improve your lung capacity to maintain respiratory health.
Your organs, muscles, and joints can suffer from blockages and a build-up of toxins, especially if you’re sitting down for much of the day. Yoga practice pumps your muscles and improves your immune system’s lymphatic circulation while increasing your oxygen levels, which is great news for a strong immune system.
Yoga builds inner and outer strength
Every part of your body benefits from yoga, including your muscles, back, legs, chest, arms, and core. As a preventative measure, asana practice helps to ward off problems such as arthritis and back pain. By releasing tight muscles, improving posture, cultivating balance and increasing flexibility, you’re less prone to injury, aches and pains.
As your body awareness deepens, so does your ability to access inner strength. With discipline, self-confidence, and a focused mind, healing can take top priority as you nurture positive thinking and peace.
Yoga improves your mental health
If you’re in the grips of emotional or physical pain, it’s easy to project your thoughts into the future and fall into fear-based thinking, which often leads to negative perceptions that hinder your efforts to truly heal.
When you focus on your breath, thoughts begin to disappear into the background. With them go the triggers that cause resistance to pain and therefore attract more of it. By learning these coping mechanisms, your mental health improves as present-moment awareness increases.
Becoming aware of the present moment often results in noticing the little things that bring you joy. You laugh, you readily practice compassion, kindness, and gratitude and your problems tend to recede into manageable issues. With these positive feelings, your body and mind can reconnect on the path to healing.